And the slow train rolls on ...

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Month One.  OMG I cannot do my favorite race that I have trained for months for.  OMG I am in such great fitness and this is the worst thing ever that I’ve got injured a month before my key race of the year.  So, so sad.

Month Two.  Ok, this injury is really dragging on longer than I’d like, ack – it’s worse than I’d previously thought but ok, I’ll be back running 100% in a few weeks time.  No problem.

Hiking in North Van.

Month Three.  Hmm, this next race is looking questionable.  I mean maybe still doable, I’ve been cross training a lot and I’m making some progress so maybe I can do it.  Think positive, think positive!

Month Four.  This is gosh darn ridiculous!  I mean I’m an ultrarunner and I’ve just had to pull out of a 23km race.  Since when can I not run for two hours without getting injured?  Ok, ok, more cross training it is.

Slow miles, sore ass.

Month Five.  I’m making some progress, I mean maybe just a little but surely I’m getting there!  Let’s race a 10k road race, let’s ignore the fact that I’m a trail ultra runner.  Ack, that 10k race did my leg no good at all.  Fine, let’s scratch next months ultra that a really wanted to race.  Boo hoo.  Silly running.

Month Six.  Winter is so less conducive to cross training.  Cycling in the dark and rain in pointless.  I so don’t want to go pool running. Fitness is pointless, I can’t run.  Fine, fine – I’ll carry on with more expensive physio, it’s got to help at some point, no?

Month Seven.  Ok, final dream race of the year well and truly scratched.  I give up.  100%, I’m done.  How long can you do without running properly and still call yourself a runner?  ‘Cause I sure as anything don’t feel like one now.

Low impact gym time.

Month Eight.  No pressure.  The race year is done, the boat has left the harbor and I well and truly missed the sailing.  That’s ok, everything will turn around in the New Year next month, right?  Right!  New Year, no injuries, new races to aim for.  I will do this!

Month Nine.  How come it’s January and I’m still injured.  Has anyone every told you how unmotivating physio exercises are after nine full months?  Sure, different physios, different exercises, same result.

2016 was my worst year of running by far.  An injury struck at the worst time, right before a key race, a race I love with a passion and that I had trained so hard for, and yet it was taken away from me just moments before the start line.  The last now ten months, and counting, have been about constantly adjusting goals to the tides of my injury. It goes without saying that when you’re used to running 100 miles a week then a pretty big void is left when your body only seems to want to run for a tiny fraction of the distance it once did.  Don’t get me wrong – no broken leg, no deathly disease, it ‘just’ seems to be an overuse injury that steadfastly refuses to go away.  There have been many a time where I say, ‘fine, I give up, I’m done’ but then I get out for a short run and I love the crunch of gravel under my feet, the fresh air on my cheeks, the sounds of nothing but the rustling trees and my breath, and I daydream of races of past and I want to be back there and know I can’t give up the hope of getting there just yet.  It’s not just the races I miss (which of course I do), I miss the structure that daily training brings, I miss chasing my friends at club workouts and I miss those familiar trails and those mountain views that, for now, seem like a distant memory.  Right now I don’t class myself as a runner and whilst the memories of past running often seem more like a dream, I want to chase that dream.  I hate the physio exercises and the mind numbing cross training but you know what?  I didn’t win Western States and Comrades by giving up, and I’m not giving up on this nightmarish injury ultra just yet.  Why? Because I want to be that 70 year old lady that still runs around the neighborhood and shows up at local races.  Sure, a few more competitive ultras before then would be nice too, but for now – I just want to run.

One step forward, and hopefully not two steps back.

Grinding Glaciers in Revelstoke

Having slowly been working my way back from niggling injuries (which are still far from 100% gone) I decided less than two weeks ago to race Glacier Grind 44k in Revelstoke this past weekend (a 5 Peaks race).  It was the perfect balance of being close enough to home that I could commit to the race not too far in advance, and yet it was far enough away from home that I'd get to experience the fun of racing on new-to-me trails.  The 44k distance and amount of climbing (around 2400m, and same of descent) was great too as it made it a good challenge yet not anything too extreme.

Speaking at the race briefing the evening before the race, with Adam Campbell.  Photo: Amy Golumbia

The race profile was relatively straight forward - complete an undulating loop of a few kms to warm up before hauling yourself up some huge mountain ascent that seemed to grind on for a very long time, play around in the alpine and some rocky sections for a while whilst admiring some pretty lakes swirling in the mist, before bombing back down the mountain on one crazy fun long descent to the finish line.

Alpine lake along the course.  Photo: Amy Golumbia

A runner in the swirling mist.  Photo: Steve Shannon Photography

 As usual I showed my weakness is long uphills climbs and I hiked a huge portion of that, but I was relatively good at just putting my head down and getting to work.  Well, I didn't put my head down entirely as we'd been warned at the pre-race briefing that there were both black and grizzly bears active in the area so my eyes and ears were open, but the most I saw was some fresh berry-filled poop on the trail and some footprints in the mud.  But the bears were definitely around with one racer I talked to having been (un)lucky enough to see 3 separate bears during the race.

Runners grinding their way up to Eva Pass.  Photo: Steve Shannon Photography

 The biggest kudos has to go out to the volunteers at this race and the Revelstoke National Park staff - whether they were runners from further afield or Revy locals, many folks stood out in the cold and drizzly rain for many hours to ensure that we stayed on track, didn't get eaten by bears, but did get to eat the usual aid station food.  It was a grey fall day and although it was warm at the lower elevations, by the time we were up at the high point of Eva Pass, I was definitely pulling out my jacket to stay warm on the descent over rocky slabs and through lush moss and fungi filled forests.

Volunteer ensuring we all arrived safely atop Eva Pass.  Photo: Steve Shannon Photography

 My friend Liza from Canmore led the female charge on the uphill and it honestly didn't surprise me - Liza is a strong and competitive adventure racer, mountain biker and runner - and well, she's just more of a mountain lady than I am.  But Liza and our fellow friend Fitzy were within sight on the final portion of the climb up to Eva Pass so I was hopeful that I could catch them both on the descent.  Unfortunately before I caught Liza I also caught my toe in some mud and before I knew it I'd splatted down onto a rock and bruised my knee.  To be honest I was more annoyed that my gloves were now super muddy and wet rather than bothered by my knee, but with a bit of on-the-run thinking I took off my wet gloves and instead used my arm sleeves to keep my hands warm.

Typical Fitzy ... and volunteer unicorn.  Photo: Steve Shannon Photography

Surface scrapes from getting a little too familiar with the trail.

 The final descent through what can only be described as an enchanted forest was far too much fun - a nice grade to pick up the pace and yet enough technicality to slow you down.  All the better was that on the final few kms of descent I caught a total of three men to secure an overall 4th place finish and 1st female.  Liza was not far behind over the line as 2nd woman.

Enchanted forest.  Photo: Stephanie O'Brien

All in all a great course, amazing volunteers, awesome to catch up with so many Banff/ Canmore buddies, and lots of fun to be back racing again - albeit at a low key event and still with much progress to make in terms of working through aches and pains, and working back to full fitness.

Top 3 ladies.  Photo: Jan Herman

Rainy Revy recovery run the day after the race.

Valley running in Revy.  Photo: self.

Pretty ceramic medal :)

It's been an uphill battle

Fair to say that 2015 has been a bit of a disaster in terms of my running so far.  I keep saying that there is still time to turn the year around but now sitting in early September I realise that the pages of the calendar are flicking over fast.  However, ever the optimist I'm determined to keep plugging away.  This year I've had niggling aches and pains and various little injuries here and there for what seems like most of the year and so I've struggled to attain the consistent training required to be in good running shape and racing fitness.  After Mont Blanc marathon in late June I came home to Canada hobbling with a messed up tibilais anterior and was ultimately forced to take a few weeks totally off running, not exactly what I'd had planned for the middle of summer when beautiful mountain trails were calling.  But instead I hit the tarmac of my road bike and like every injured runner in Vancouver - I climbed Grouse Mountain like a demon.  Grouse Mountain has various trails of about 3km in length which climb around 850m, and then there is the delightful gondola which whizzes you back to the bottom - allowing for a tough but very minimal impact workout.  It's a huge old powerhike and I'm not sure I've actually got any better at my poor climbing skills but it was certainly fun just to be on the trails, especially on the Grouse Quadruple Quad Crusher day with my buddy Jer (that's my made up event for completing the Grind, BCMC, Skyline and Flint & Feather trails all in one outing, about 12.5k with about 3200m of ascent).

Thanks to the orange helmet man for going on some very slow bike rides with me :)

Langley Medio Fondo.  88k ride in 3h00, it'll do for a rookie :)

Jer and I on our 4th climb up Grouse, the coffee after the 2nd climb was a life saver :)

A leisurely day above Elfin lakes with some of the most super people ever :)

Barcelona for some Salomon filming.  A manic trip but such fun and squeezed in a few ok runs like this.

But of course I was excited to get off the bike and speed the hiking up to running as soon as I could,  and have been slowly building up in the last month or so.  I've put no focus on running pace other than my weekly trail intervals with my running club, because in all honesty I'm in such a running state right now that even just building steady, easy running will get me in better shape.  A friend at our running club the other night asked me what pace I'm running tempos at,  erm ....  I don't run tempos (well I do, but definitely not right now).

Then a few weeks ago I heard about the inaugural Salomon Valley to Peak race being held in Vancouver - 20k with 1600m of advertised climb (it ended up being more like 1800m) and very little descent.  It seemed like a great fun event and a good race to test my legs on (non-ultra, little downhill pounding) so on Saturday my super buddy Anne Marie picked me up bright and early (thank you for helping me maintain my car free life!) and we drove the spectacular Sea to Sky highway to Whistler.  In all honesty I went into the race with no focus (I'd done 2 hikes up Grouse the afternoon before) but just keen to have a fun day and get my competitive mind set back.  Well, it was fun - once I got to the finish line!  No, I shouldn't say that - it was an amazing event but bear in my that my fortes lie in ultra distance running on flats or downhills - so for me this was pretty much a 2h40 suffer fest to drag myself up a mountain and focus that every km counted as there were only 20 of them in the race!  I think in part I need to learn that powerhiking is ok (and also get better at uphill running) as I just get despondent when I hike SO much.  The bulk of the climbing was done by the 10k mark so then spurred on my a flying glimpse of local trail runner Gemma cheering at an aid station, I then buckled down and blasted any short downhills and tried to push the flats.  It was all going great til the course markings got a little minimal and I took a few very brief wrong turns which knocked my mindset once again.  Adam Campbell (who had already finished the race and come back down the course to cheer) was met with a rather grumpy Ellie some 1km from the finish.  But by then the course was steep and rocky and he told me to 'get my hike on' - well, if Adam is telling me hiking is ok, I'll go with it :)

I don't recall this snow on race day - maybe that means I was actually focusing on running hard.  Photo: David McColm.

Whistler alpine is stunning.  Photo: David McColm

Enjoying a small amount of downhill :)  Photo: David McColm.

Finishing at over 2100m at the peak of Whistler with a bluebird sky day and a dusting of recent snow on the ground it was definitely one of the most spectacular finish lines I've been at, and even worth all that hiking to get there!  I came over the line 3rd place woman, which is really neither here nor there since my aim was simply to toe the start line of a race in a beautiful setting.

With Eric (2nd male), Will, Anne Marie (1st female) and Tom at the finish.

I hardly dare say it but for now the rehab seems to be going well and running progressing slowly but steadily.  As such I'm hoping to keep training sensibly but consistently with the aim of toeing a few more race start lines before years end.

After my finish at BMO Vancouver Marathon back in May (just 3 days after losing a hand cast post hand surgery) my running club coach described me as 'perseverance in motion', so I'm keeping that in mind and will hike and bike as much as needed to maintain the motion whilst I get back to running, but I'm not giving up on this running thing quite yet!

Playing around in the alpine with Tom & AM post race.  Photo:  Anne Marie Madden.

Post race cool down.  Photo: David McColm.

The Rut - a Real Mountain Run

Whilst I'm certainly not unfamiliar with running in the mountains and have raced in many trail events, it is fair to say that if there was ever any doubt whether I'd raced a 'real' mountain run then that doubt is now 100% gone given I survived The Rut 50km course in Big Sky, Montana yesterday.  When I signed up for this race, which is the final of the World Skyrunning Ultra Championships, I knew it would be tough but the more I saw of the course in the few days prior to race day and the more I talked to folks I began to wonder what exactly I had got myself into.

Checking out Lone Peak in the snow 2 days pre-race

Terrain for mountain goats.  I am not a mountain goat.

A well earned view from Lone Peak

The start line was at over 2300m, which is about 2150m higher than where I live, and the course would only climb, climb, climb until it topped out at Lone Peak, the imposing summit which looms over the mountain resort of Big Sky at some 3400m.  Yikes!  I anticipated that the lack of oxygen could pose some challenges.  If that was not enough, in order to achieve the panoramic vistas from the summit of Lone Peak, I would have to scale not one, but two, scree/ boulder fields and mountain ridges, and given the start and finish line were in the same location, well I'd have to also descend some hair-raisingly steep slopes to reach the finish line.  How hair-raising?  Well, there were ropes on hand and a few yelps and whimpers may have escaped my mouth as, at times, I would descend haphazardly and ungainly down a trail-free mountainside, quite simply trying to do my best to remain upright and juddering from one  bright yellow course marker to another.

Local trail friends

But the course was not all scree slopes and mountain vistas which is what made the course so intriguing; many of the early and latter miles were cruisy wide double track trails or single track bike paths, buttery smooth and oh so runnable (especially if my red blood cell count had been a little higher).  These were easy miles where I managed to comfortably click off a 4min/ km on a smooth and sweet descent about 5kms from the finish line, and these miles lay in sharp contrast to the middle miles where I huffed and puffed and slipped and slided my way up a scree slope, knocking off a none too impressive, but very hard earned, 24min/ km!

Early miles on easy trails

The 'trail' up Lone Peak

All in all, just like Speedgoat 50km back in July, I felt that I held my own and I am more than happy with my fourth place finish.  I knew that it would be a likely unachievable goal to keep apace with the mountain gazelles of Emelie Forsberg, Kasie Enman and Anna Frost so I was just happy to share much of my time on the course with Hillary Allen and Becca Much, as we would switch back and forth between 4th and 6th for much of the course.  With a strong finish I managed to sneak into 4th place for a final time about 9kms before the finish line and then kept my legs spinning faster to maintain this position and earn my sub-7hr finish (6:57:33).

Full race results are available here
And a super photo album, which captures the pure beauty of the course, is available here.

A big shout out to the two Montana Mikes (Mike Foote and Mike Wolfe) who pulled off a true Euro-style mountain race and a great party!

Petzl-ing it up pre-race start.  Photo: Bryon/ iRunFar

3400m and looking forward to a screeching descent.  Photo: iRunFar

Squamish 50k

What a fun weekend of trail running activities Gary and Geoff have created up in Squamish, BC!  Friday evening a Film Fest, Saturday a 50 miler, Sunday a 50km and a 23km AND another set of films at the Trails in Motion Film Fest.  All in all, a fun and busy weekend of socialising with trail buddies and enjoying the soft and springy, but also unrelentingly hilly and technical, trails of The Outdoor Recreation Capital of Canada.

The weekend started off with helping the awesome Meghan and Bryon of iRunFar with the 50 mile race day live coverage.  This involved an early start, finding myself in a tutu by 6am (thanks Solana!), waiting patiently in random spots trail side and attempting to master fast tweeting with not so good cell coverage.  Fun times and great to see so many out of towners taking up the challenge of our technical backyard (Mike Wardian, Gary Gellin, Cassie Scallon, Paul Terranova, to name a few).  Of course any day on the Squamish trails ends at the Howe Sound Brew Pub, although rather unusually for me this was a pre, rather than post, race burger and fries so I skipped sampling one of their many on-tap beers.

iRunFar trailside race coverage

With Meghan & Solana/ iRunFar reporting.  Credit: Solana Klassen

By Saturday evening I had joined good buddies Susan and David, so we got back to our accommodations at Quest for an early night.  My head hit the pillow and I was out like a light until my alarm was blaring at 4.10am and it took me a few minutes to remember whether the race was today or if I had already run it the day before!

Squamish 50km was going to be a low key, hard training run for me rather than a key race, but of course the day prior talk had started of where I would be in the overall field and whether I would hold off all the 50/ 50 men (those running both the 50 miler and the 50km), given this is included the awesome Mike Wardian - this was no easy challenge people were trying to set me up for.

Credit: iRunFar/ Meghan Hicks

A few race highlights included:

- The pace seemed to go out super slow.  I was in the top 4 right out of the gate, and stayed round about there for most of the race.

- I move like a slug on the uphills so truly appreciated Mike Wardian, Dave Cressman and Brian (?) catching up with me.  This forced me to pick up the effort a little and with a run/ hike combination I held my own with the boys until the top of the first big climb (around 14km), I then decided to go playing on the downhills and got a nice little lead.

- On passing through Quest it was great to see David and Chloe out supporting, as well as a lively crowd of other cheerers, a little boost before I headed up the next main climb with Brian (?), he ran the whole thing, once again with a run/ hike shuffle I kept up.

With Chloe at the race start.  Credit: Chloe Gendron.

- Super to see my friend Des Mott at the 32km aid station.  Squamish is a re-birth of Stormy, my first ever 50 mile race, and I had been the lamenting the absence of faces from years gone by.  I remember meeting Des at my first ever ultra back in about 2004 so it was great to have him out on the trail and helping keep us runners hydrated on what was increasingly becoming a hot and humid day.

Credit: iRunFar/ Meghan Hicks

- I was now picking up the pace a little as I moved in the latter stages of the race, so super to have Chloe assist with filing my pack at the 40km station as I headed off for the final 10km which had 2 little climbs in it.

- At top of Mntn of Phlegm, some 4.5km to the finish, Solana and Jay told me I was some 2 mins behind 2nd place guy Eric.  Little did I know this was super strong skier Eric Carter, otherwise I'd have known better than to lay chase.  I caught Eric on the 2km flat tarmac section to the finish and  I held onto his coat tails until he out kicked me by 2.4 seconds at the end.

Less than 1km to go, duking it out with Eric Carter.  Credit: Meredith Terranova

All in all a super event, and one I can highly recommend if you like a little technical single track in the sunshine.

With 3rd place woman, Ann Signorella, and RDs Geoff and Gary.  Credit: Mike Wardian.

Full results of the 50km are here.

Hand crafted finishers trophy!

A huge thank you to ALL the volunteers who put in many hours of hard work to make this event a hugely fun and successful event, and a thank you to all my various friends who gave me rides over the weekend (Kim, Meghan, David and Jeff) so I can maintain my no-car existence :)

Speedgoat, Slowgoat, Stellargoat

'Welcome to Karl's party' was the call over the loud speakers as racers started to assemble at the start line of Speedgoat 50km at 6.30am yesterday.  And that for sure set the tone of the day; this was a race where there was so much energy and excitement, so much positivity and help from the aid station volunteers that it might threaten to overwhelm the breathtaking natural beauty of the race course if the course but not so amazingly stunning itself.  I've been lucky enough to run in many places but this course in the Wasatch mountains of Snowbird is definitely high up on the list of just plain pretty courses; whether it was the rocky and still slightly snowy scree slopes, or the meadows of wild flowers, or the fun technical scrambles, there was always something making a very good effort to distract you from the fact that you were ploughing your way up some long and steady climb to the course high point of over 3300m.

Seven weeks ago I ran Comrades 89km in 6h18, and I knew that coming into Speedgoat that it would take an amazing effort to run this course, some 39km shorter, in the same amount of time.  At the end of the day I posted 6h53 for what turned out to be a little over 52kms and I'm very happy with my 3rd place finish.  Speedgoat was always going to be a test of (1) how I would perform at altitude and (2) how I would perform on a true mountain course.  I don't like to be pigeon holed into doing only one type of running as that would mean missing out on many amazing races, but I know that my strengths are in more runnable courses.  I had to have a chuckle when I looked at the profile of the Speedgoat course and figured that there was about 2.5kms on flattish runnable terrain on the entire course!

Overall, the race panned out pretty much as I expected - after the first 9 miles and approx 800m of climbing I was in 8th place.  As I had feared, I was struggling with the altitude and my general weakness on uphills on the runnable climbs, plus it always takes me a while to warm up.  But as soon as we hit the descents I picked off a couple of places, despite being careful to not hammer hard, as I knew there was still an equally big climb, in addition to many smaller climbs, to come that I would need solid quads for.  The later climbs I found myself keeping apace with the runners around me, despite hiking practically all of them, and found the steeper climbs, although very tough, was were my decent ability to powerhike paid off.  And then once we were over Hidden Peak (approx km43) for the final time it was time to hammer hard down the final big descent (which also had a new mini climb in it!) to enjoy the finish and ensure I wasn't caught by Hilary who was just 2 minutes back of me at the top.

All in all, it was great to mix it up and do a race that was different from a lot of the runnable stuff I tend to do.  I now know what I can work on to improve on, and I also know that although the altitude likely slowed me down, I still managed to run well enough that I would race again up high - which is a good thing as I'm excited to be heading to Montana for The Rut 50km, another Skyrunning World Series race, in September!


Click here for my post-race interview with iRunFar.com

Thank you as always to my sponsors: Montrail, Mountain Hardwear, Clif, Nuun, Udos Oil the Machine, Drymax socks, Sundog Eyewear, CEP Compression Canada.


Gear I used on race day included:

Montrail Bajada shoes
Drymax Max Trail Pro socks (during race)
CEP Compression socks (post race)
8 x Clif gels, 1 x pack of Clif Shot Bloks, Clif hydration drink.
Mountain Hardwear Mighty Power Cooler Sports Bra, Wicked Lite Tank and Cool Runner Shorts
Sundog Dialed mela-lens sunglasses
Nuun (post-race hydration)

Approaching Hidden Peak after 1st climb.  Photo: iRunFar

Glad to have almost made it to top of first climb! Photo: Paul Nelson Photography

Hello Meghan! Photo: iRunFar

Heading down to Mineral Basin.

Congratulation Anna who won for 2nd time! Photo: Paul Nelson Photography

Speedgoat top 3 ladies: myself (3), Anna Frost (1), Kasie Enman (2).  Photo: iRunFar

With the Speedgoat himself, pre race.  Thanks for an amazing race Karl!  Photo: iRunFar

Towards Ridge Trail

End of Ridge Trail